Department of Botany of Purdue’s College of Agriculture, Purdue University will use Protea’s LAESI ® DP – 1000 Instrument  System for direct molecular analysis in their herbicide research. The system will be used for  the molecular  imaging of  herbicide active ingredients  and other  related  compounds to optimize  herbicide application sand improve weed management.  Purdue University has acquired this system from Protea Biosciences Group, Inc. (“Protea”).

What is LAESI system?

Protea’s LAESI (Laser Ablation Electrospray Ionization) system is a next generation molecular imaging platform that directly analyzes biological samples without the need to apply chemicals or introduce tags or tracersand enables 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional imaging, displaying the displaying the distribution of molecules in the samples.
“LAESI” enables the direct analysis of molecules without the need for sample preparation. Large molecular datasets are generated on native biological sample s that can also be visually displayed as 2D and 3D images. Protea maintains its own laboratory facilities where services are provided to its
clients, using LAESI and complementary technologies and expertise. 

Protea Biosciences is a molecular information company providing innovative bio-analytical solutions to the pharmaceutical, agricultural, and life science industries. Protea has developed a new , fully automated, molecular information technology platform , known as “LAESI” (Laser Ablation Electrospray Ionization).

“The continued investigation of how herbicides function within the plant’s morphological architecture and physiological pathways is paramount for improving the efficiency of herbicide activity and elucidating possible mechanisms that are the basis for the herbicide- resistant weeds impacting crop production , and Protea’s DP – 1000 system will enable us to  map and monitor specific compounds both on and within the plants of interest ,” stated Bryan  Young, PhD.,  Associate Professor of Weed Science in the Department of Botany and Plant Pathology at Purdue University. 

He continued, “Understanding the molecular interactions between plants and herbicides or combinations thereof is essential to developing strategies to combat invasive and emerging herbicide – resistant weed biotypes.”

Bryan’s research focuses on weed biology and ecology relative to developing effective management strategies in agronomic crops, herbicide application technologies for optimization and stewardship of herbicide use, and the physiological characterization of herbicide-resistant weed biotypes. His goal is to bridge the basic and applied aspects of weed management research to assist in delivering more effective weed management recommendations to crop producers and land managers.

“Collaborating with Purdue and applying our LAESI technology to the field of herbicide research is  an important commercial sector for us ,” stated Steve Turner, Protea’s CEO. “The discovery of novel herbicides can have a positive effect on crop production and ultimately the ability to more economically deliver food and livestock globally. In particular LAESI’s unique ability to provide three dimensional molecular analytics of plant tissues can be incredibly useful for mapping herbicides and other molecules within the leaf, to actually see the molecular changes that  are  occurring within plants.